James Stewart is not used to racing for podiums. And the high standard he holds himself to is the same high standard his new team – Toyota/JGRMX/Yamaha – had in mind when they hired him. So, when he took the checkered flag at round four of the 2012 Monster Energy Supercross series in Oakland, it wasn’t so much elation at his victory, but rather a collective sigh of relief from the Stewart and JGR camps.

Stewart found his way through the first few racers quickest, but it wasn’t long before you could throw a blanket over the top three in the 450cc main, as Reed led Stewart and Villopoto. Villopoto was putting a lot of pressure on Stewart for second when Stewart squeezed by Reed for the lead, and Villopoto seemed to suffer as a result. Villopoto went to work on Reed, but around halfway, Reed began to pull away from Villopoto.

At the finish, Stewart took the win over Reed and Villopoto, while Ryan Dungey – who came into Oakland leading the points – came from outside the top ten for fourth. Andrew Short was fifth in front of Kevin Windham (GEICO Honda), Davi Millsaps (Toyota/JGRMX/Yamaha) and Weimer.

There’s now once again a tie atop the points standings, as Chad Reed and Ryan Dungey will both be sporting red number plate backgrounds at Anaheim 2 this coming Saturday night, and Villopoto trails them by two points. Stewart is another 10 points back.

In the Lites class, Rockstar Energy Suzuki’s Martin Davalos grabbed the holeshot and he looked good out front ahead of Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Dean Wilson, GEICO Honda’s Eli Tomac, TLD/Lucas Oil Honda’s Cole Seely, Monster Energy/BikeIt Yamaha’s Zach Osborne, and the rest, but on the second lap, Wilson went down and came around for lap two in 19th place, just in front of Seely, who crashed separately but came around 20th.

Wilson and Seely freight-trained forward throughout the race until they ended up 10th and 11th at the finish, respectively.

Osborne, on the other hand, came from the tail end of the top five to pass for second place on lap six after Eli Tomac took over the lead from Davalos. Osborne stayed second for a while before he surrendered the spot to former world champ Marvin Musquin on his Red Bull KTM a few laps from the end of the race.

Tomac took the win over Musquin and then Osborne, who scored his second podium finish in a row.

Osborne will be leaving the championship even though he sits third after four rounds, but Tomac now has a 15-point lead over Wilson for the title.